Effect of zone annealing on anisotropic nanoparticle reordering in polymer nanocomposites*

Improving mechanical properties of polymeric systems is a primary research focus within the soft matter community. Isothermal crystallization studies have been performed on systems composed of polymer-grafted nanoparticles dispersed within a polymeric matrix, where the crystallized samples exhibit an increase in the tensile modulus by almost an order of magnitude as compared with the well-dispersed samples. Recently, a technique called zone annealing has been developed in which samples are rotated or translated across a fixed temperature gradient. This technique reduces processing times from days to hours. Initial X-ray scattering experiments have demonstrated that the nanoparticles seem to order in an anisotropic fashion along the crystallizing polymer lamellae after zone annealing.